Italy Itinerary -- Your Thoughts for an Italy first timer

Hi Leslie,

Your itinerary sounds fine. The benefit of doing Florence then Rome is you'll have a shorter train ride to Rome. Either way would work fine.

In regards to not having hotels planned out, I would look into trying to book some things ahead of time since July is one of the busiest months to travel. Here's where I stayed in each city you have listed. I loved each B&B but I'm sure there are many others as well:

Venice: Corte Campana (www.cortecampana.com) - Great location near San Marco Square (plus a great B&B owner Ricardo)

Cinque Terre: Edi's rooms in Riomaggiore (www.wel.it/Vesignaedi) - Great rooms with a view

Florence: Casa di Barbano (www.casadibarbano.it) - Run by an American women (who has lived in Italy for the past 15+ years). Good location and very clean rooms with breakfast served in your room each morning.

Rome: Le Finestre sul Vaticano (www.romabandb.it) - Very Clean B&B near the vatican. There's a subway only 2-3 blocks. Owners (Max & Lavina) are very friendly and there to give you advise on places to see and eat.

Where are you going after Rome? If you have time I'd recommend going to the Amalfi Coast. Sorrento is a good home base for that and you could also see Pompeii from there.

If you have any other questions please let me know.

Have a great trip!

I would do Florence, then the CT. Cuts down on backtracking and the CT makes a better break later in your trip. It's a shame you're giving Venice only two nights, particularly since one day will be your landing, connection and travel from Milan. You could cut a day from Rome while your friend is with you and stay a couple days longer by yourself.

Your itinerary is fine. I agree with Doug that a bit more time in Venice would be great. On Florence/CT/Rome or CT/Florence/Rome, its a very frequent dilema on this site. Nobody really has the answer. We even did Florence/CT/Venice so go figure. The cause is the long distance between Venice and the CT with Florence somewhat in the middle. Don't worry. Just pick one and you'll be fine.

For travel on your own, I would suggest at least narrowing a list of hotels. Advance reservations are always better.

I would add a day to the 2-day stops, cutting out one if you have to. See, when you look at the schedule written the way you have it then its easy to think you're spending (for example) 2 days in CT. But the train from Venice to Monterosso takes about 6 hours. Even if you leave at 7:45am am you arrive at 2pm, get to your hotel, change, by the time you're out the door it's probably 3pm. And many travelers aren't keen on waking up early enough to have breakfast, finish packing, check out, and then get to the train station in time for an 8am train. So more realistically your walking around CT by 4pm. Then you have 1 more free day, and travel again. If it's to Florence, that's about a 3 hour trip so its lunch time or later before you're out exploring. And so on.

Many travelers underestimate the time it takes to change locations. My suggestion is spend a little time with the Trenitalia site to get travel times, then fill out a grid with a space for each day of your vacation. Block out travel time; so on the 1st CT, for example, the block is has an X from the top down to 4pm. It gives you a quick visual guide to where you'll be. As a handy planning tool you can also list hotels, sights you want to be sure to see, etc. My guess is when you account for travel you'll find you're spending less true time in each stop than you think.

Leslie,

A few thoughts on your proposed travel plans....

The first thing to keep in mind is that you'll arrive in Europe the day after you departed. You'll most likely be tired and jet-lagged when you arrive at Milano/MXP, and it's going to take at least several hours to get to your Hotel in Venice.

You'll likely land at MXP Terminal 1 and your best option for travel to Milano Centrale is one of the two airport Bus Shuttle services. Be prepared for the chaos at Milano Centrale and be vigilant with your luggage and valuables!

You can buy your Rail tickets (and reservations) to Venezia Santa Lucia in Milan (note there are 2 stations in Venice). The ticket office is two floors down from the tracks, and there's often quite a queue. The automated machines are a good way to avoid the crowd. The machines on the main floor accept only credit cards, however those down by the ticket office will accept Euro's as well (and are not as busy as the main floor machines).

The rail trip to Venice will be about 2.5 hours. When you arrive, walk out the doors and down the steps to the Vaporetto stop. The Italy Guidebook has good information on which boat to take and the costs.

My suggestion for the order of cities would be Venice-Florence-Cinque Terre-Rome. There's a direct train from La Spezia (CT) to Roma Termini (about 4 hours, reservations compulsory).

Regarding Hotels, my preference would be to pre-book all of them. July is PEAK travel season in Europe and you may find that many are already fully booked. Pre-booking allows a better choice of Hotels, both in terms of price range as well as which area of each city to stay in (that way you won't end up in a dodgy part of town).

How long will you have after your friend departs? A trip to the Amalfi coast is certainly possible, however keep in mind that the culture gets more "intense" as you travel south of Rome.

I'm assuming you'rre flying home from Rome?

Cheers!

Leslie,

One other point I forgot to mention - Since this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend having a look at Europe Through The Back Door, paying particular attention to the "Rail Skills" section. You might want to download the free PDF Rail Guide from this website, to get some idea on how the trains work.

I believe there's a section in ETBD on "solo travel" as well. That's my usual method for exploring Europe when not on a RS Tour, and you'll probably find that you manage just fine on your own.

Happy travels!

About your itinerary, I think Ken knows what he's talking about so I would take his suggestions.

He also makes a very good point about arriving the day after you leave and having jet lag. My suggestion would be to add 1 more night to Venice. You will then be able to recuperate and enjoy Venice a lot more.

After your friend leaves you might want to consider another day or two in Rome. There is so much to see there that you won't be bored and Rome deserves as much time as possible. This also would allow you time to get used to doing things & eating alone and by then you'll be familiar with Rome. It may help you feel more comfortable before you strike out on your own. Many people travel solo, but since this is your first trip to Italy and you say that you're nervous, it may help.

When you're picking up the ETBD book (a must) pick up the RS Italian phrase book. You'll find it very helpful. Have a great trip!

Leslie: We did Venice/Florence/CT/Siena/Rome last October. We stayed in Vernazza, the 4th town north. Arrive in the afternoon and took the train to the 5th town, Monterosso and hung out there. The next morning, took the train to the southernmost town, Riomaggiore, and then hiked north on the trail to Manarola, Corniglia and back to Vernazza. Essentially got to see all the towns and great scenery along the Ligurian Sea in 1.5 days. It was tiring...that's for sure. I'm sure the 128 stairs up to our room in Vernazza had something to do with that!

It was also our first trip to Europe and we went everywhere by train or bus; pretty simple. Have fun.

Jeff